\n
Major spoilers follow for Lee Cronin\u2019s <\/strong>The Mummy<\/strong>. <\/strong><\/p>\nA familiar title gets a distinct new interpretation in Lee Cronin\u2019s The Mummy. The writer-director behind Evil Dead Rise tells a modern-day tale about an American family temporarily living in Egypt when their young daughter vanishes, only for her to return eight years later and encased in a sarcophagus. She\u2019s alive, but also quite different and more unsettling than they remember\u2026<\/p>\n\n\nAre You My Mummy?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<\/section>\nSpeaking to IGN about the film, Cronin said that after revisiting the original 1932 version of The Mummy starring Boris Karloff, the starting point for his version was asking: \u201cWhat about mummification for a different purpose? If you ask somebody, \u2018What do you think of when you think of a mummy?\u2019 I think most people will think of a Pharaoh, or iconic images we all know of lost kings that were found again and golden coffins and all of these things. And I thought, \u2018What if a loved one was to be mummified in the context of a horror movie in the now? Why would that be?\u2019 And then the why<\/em> kind of kicked off this concept in terms of mummification for a different purpose, and why she was kidnapped, and where she fits into this longer prehistory.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\nLee Cronin\u2019s The Mummy is being released by New Line\/Warner Bros. and comes from Blumhouse and Atomic Monster. In the lead-up to the release of this film, Universal separately announced they would be making a fourth Mummy movie starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, returning to the version of the title first launched in 1999, this time directed by the duo known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream VI). Along with the likely reason Cronin\u2019s name was added to the title of his film, the Blumhouse Twitter account has been having particular fun trying to fend off potential audience confusion, continually tweeting in recent weeks: \u201cBRENDAN FRASER IS NOT IN LEE CRONIN\u2019S THE MUMMY.\u201d <\/p>\n
Asked if he was part of the decision to so openly acknowledge the two different Mummy movies, Cronin remarked, \u201cI would always acknowledge it, because I think Brendan Fraser is an amazing actor, first of all, and I’ll be there opening weekend when [that] Mummy comes out in 2028, which is still quite a ways away. I think we’ve got plenty of space here for people to enjoy this Mummy movie before then. I love Radio Silence. I’ve met with them on a number of occasions and they’re super talented and so creative, but yeah, we’re always aware that people look sometimes for the shortcut to make a connection. But at the center of our endeavor, we have an opportunity to do something different and to break expectations and to play around with what people think they’re going to see. And for me, that was at the heart of my decision for this to be my next movie. So I was super aware of [someone asking] \u2018What are you making next?\u2019 \u2018The Mummy.\u2019 And they go \u201cOh!\u201d and telling them, \u2018No, not that <\/em>Mummy. It’s something different.\u2019 That was really exciting to me.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy Images<\/h3>\n<\/span><\/output><\/p>\n
Cronin dug into more spoilery details of his<\/em> The Mummy with IGN, including some of the many notably gory sequences. <\/p>\nPedicure From Hell <\/strong><\/h2>\nAfter the now teenage Katie Cannon (Natalie Grace) is discovered and brought back home to Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Cannon family have to adjust to the snarling, unkempt, and malnourished person before them as they hope to break through and find the girl they once knew. In one memorable scene, Katie\u2019s mother, Larissa (Laia Costa), and her grandmother, Carmen (Ver\u00f3nica Falc\u00f3n), attempt to tend to Katie in ways that have clearly been long neglected, including clipping her grotesquely long and mangled toenails. <\/p>\n
As they use a large clipper to try and snap through her incredibly hardened nails, the audience is already wincing\u2026 and I\u2019m sure I\u2019m not the only one who assumed, okay, one of these nails is about to be torn off the toe, and it\u2019ll be gross. That is <\/em>what happens, yes, but then so much more<\/em>, because with one big tug of the clipper, not only does the nail tear off but a long strip of Katie\u2019s skin with it, which completely rips the flesh off of her foot and then up her leg in one fell swoop, leaving a bloody, nasty long wound in its wake. <\/p>\nAs they use a large clipper to try and snap through her incredibly hardened nails, the audience is already wincing.
\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/div>\nSaid Cronin of leaning into the audience’s expectations and going much further: \u201cIt\u2019s the dark magic trick, right? And that’s part of the fun that you have when you make horror movies. Part of what I enjoy about the movies that I make is trying to misdirect. And I think great misdirection comes from the fact that people know roughly the ballpark you’re playing in, but they just don’t know when it’s coming, how it’s coming, or exactly how it’s going to pay off. So that was a moment that came to me quite early in the development of the story.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cronin said what makes it all the more wrenching is the genuinely kind intent from Carmen and Larissa, noting: \u201cIt\u2019s also quite a tender moment, because it’s about this grandmother and mother caring for their loved one in a really holistic way, trying to massage her skin and cut her nails and comb her hair and make her somehow whole again, and reintroduce her to the family. Then I make it twisted. I take that sweet sentiment and I turn it into something that’s much darker and much more sinister. But then, in turn, on the other end of that, the third part of that equation is [that] it opens up, literally, a pathway into the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nKatie Wraps<\/strong><\/h2>\nThe toenail scene leads into investigation because of the bizarre realization that Katie\u2019s father, Charlie (Jack Reynor), makes in the aftermath. He comes to discover that the strip of skin from Katie\u2019s leg is in fact multiple different layers on top of one another, and when separated they have ancient Egyptian symbols on them, sending him on a hunt to find out the source behind them and what they mean for his daughter\u2019s current plight. <\/p>\n
Later in the movie, after Katie \u2013 or more specifically the ancient demonic force inside her which she was meant to contain within that sarcophagus until her body wastes away and the next host is found \u2013 has also entranced her brother, Sebasti\u00e1n (Shylo Molina), she disturbingly asks him to help her \u201cundress.\u201d But this ends up giving us a fuller understanding of what has happened, as Katie begins to tug away not at her clothing, but at her skin<\/em>. But it isn\u2019t<\/em> just skin; she\u2019s covered in very thin, impossibly old wrappings filled with the tiny writing Charlie found, which at a glance are not visible and simply look like her damaged skin. This ends up being, of course, Cronin\u2019s twist on how to incorporate the idea of a mummy\u2019s wrappings in a way that wasn\u2019t the go-to usual overt visual. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\nExplained Cronin: \u201cI wanted to hide the monster in plain sight to begin with and for there to be enough doubt in the parents\u2019 minds. Not even doubt, because they would do anything to care for their loved one and bring her home. I think even if she was covered in Karloff\u2019s bandages, they still would have brought her home and tried to make her better, because they care for her and they love her. So yeah, that was actually quite fun, this idea that what you think is the skin, because it’s settled over time, actually starts to erode and prove to be something different, and is actually a second skin that’s containing both their daughter, the thing that they’ve really been searching for, but [also] a terrible evil at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wake to End All Wakes<\/strong><\/h2>\nArguably the wildest and most impactful sequence in Lee Cronin\u2019s The Mummy occurs at Carmen\u2019s wake, after an encounter with Katie leads Grandma to being thrown out of a window and fed on by coyotes (it\u2019s a rough day for Carmen!). This scene stands out for how it just keeps escalating, with one shocking and gloriously disgusting thing happening after another. Where to begin? Well, the family\u2019s youngest child \u2013 8-year-old Maud (Billie Roy) \u2013 is now under Katie\u2019s demonic sway and yanks out her own teeth, spitting blood onto deviled eggs that are then eaten by unknowing mourners. Next, Maud climbs into the open coffin, tearing open the stitching keeping her dead grandmother’s damaged mouth closed, pulls Carmen\u2019s dentures out and puts them in her own bloody mouth, and uses them to bite Charlie. Then, Katie leaps into the coffin, chomping into Carmen\u2019s corpse before the coffin tips over, sending them both spilling to the ground, at which point embalming fluid pours from Carmen\u2019s body and Katie \u2013 ugh \u2013 eagerly licks the fluid up from the floor. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\nEven as a lifelong horror and makeup FX gore fan, that last moment actually made me a bit nauseous, which I told Cronin I found impressive, asking him if he came up with all of the various things that would occur in that wake scene gradually or all at once. Cronin replied: \u201cIt came in one very aggressive blast of thought, and it came from my own experience of experiencing a wake with a loved one. That is an important part of the process when somebody passes away, and it\u2019s a particularly big thing in Irish culture. But it’s also traumatic when you reflect upon it on a personal level, because someone that you love is there, but they’re not<\/em> there. They’re in a box, and the box is open, but you’re gonna have to put the lid on and put them in the ground. And these things do turn over in my mind, my own life experiences, and I thought I need to deal with this one, so I’m gonna try and create the craziest wake sequence that I can. And sometimes when I have those types of ideas, it does come in a bit of a blast.\u201d <\/p>\nThroughout the film, it had been established that the aging Carmen was trying to hold onto her beauty the best she could, including wearing those dentures. Cronin explained: \u201cThe teeth aspect of that was always in my mind. I wanted there to be a payoff from that, because it just felt like, again, a cool moment from a genuinely personal experience. I’ll talk about that another day! But it was something that I’d connected with, and then with the wake, sometimes when you say all bets are off, it’s the type of scene that comes together [quick]. I refined it a bunch, and it was really difficult to shoot, but the bones of it were there from the get-go. And it’s probably my favorite sequence in the movie, or close to my favorite sequence, because it’s completely batshit crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
“I always get hands on when it comes to the blood and the sticky stuff.\u201d
\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/div>\nI mentioned that while I was personally most grossed out by the embalming fluid bit, a woman next to me was conspicuously wretching at the blood-covered deviled eggs being eaten. Cronin chuckled, remarking that \u201cI think the embalming fluid one is pretty wild, and the deviled eggs was one of those ones that was always there, but I never thought about it much in my mind. It’s funny how some things catch on, because a lot of people love that moment, but I never thought about it. But it is a story told in three parts, which is always important. And the blood spit on the deviled eggs is actually me spitting off camera, because everyone was trying and couldn’t quite get it right. I’m like, \u2018Give me the blood bottle! Let\u2019s go.\u2019 I always get hands on when it comes to the blood and the sticky stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n